Greece, international lenders reach third bailout deal

Athens: Greece and its international lenders today reached an agreement on a third bailout deal. The deal was concluded shortly after 8 am, following a marathon session of talks that began yesterday morning, as media reported.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos confirmed that a deal is in place. "We are very close," he said, adding "There are a couple of very small details remaining on prior actions.”

According to sources, the agreement involves the government having to immediately implement 35 measures.

The measures demand changes in tonnage tax for shipping firms, reducing the prices of generic drugs, a review of the social welfare system, strengthening of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE), phasing out of early retirement, scrapping tax breaks for islands by the end of 2016, implementation of the product market reforms proposed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), de-regulating the energy market and proceeding with the privatisation programme which is already in place.

If the agreement is finalised, the Greek parliament would vote on it on Thursday. This would be followed on Friday by the Eurogroup and other eurozone parliaments approving the deal.